The Great Indian Olympic Cycle: What we can do
Every four years, there’s a pattern that is almost certain to play out thus:
The unveiling: Indian athletes come in to the limelight a couple of months before every summer Olympic Games. Most of them are names most people have never heard of. Sadly, some others you hear only because they’re being hauled up for doping offences.
The hype of hope: Then begins the cruellest part. These athletes, who have toiled endlessly, changed their body clocks for years to suit the conditions & time zone of the host country, lived in damp, cramped rooms for years in the belief that they have a duty to perform for their country, are suddenly burdened with an expectation of winning a medal. The media says the people of India want the medals, the politicians say India is watching you, and meanwhile, the actual India is busy reading a newspaper or watching a TV show and starting to come to terms with the fact that the Olympics are around the corner.
The coming out of the sports ‘experts’: Cynically looking at this phenomenon, one might say that no one should have an opinion on things they don’t know. That would be grossly unfair and not to mention a violation of a fundamental right. The upside to this is that people at least take the effort to learn that tiny bit more about a sport they might not have previously cared about. It’s generally a good thing if people talk about the Produnova vault rather than a straight drive for once.
The opening ceremony optimism: As the athletes were preparing to line up at the Maracana, Indian sports pundits were busy predicting India’s medal tally. There’s always an inflated sense of optimism at this stage, perhaps buoyed by what happened in 2008. A year when little was expected, India brought home more hope than medals. And then four years later, and the first time since the Helsinki Games in 1952, the Indian contingent did better than it had in the previous Olympiad. So, when athletes left for Rio, they knew at the back of their heads that an increase from the six of London was expected.
Reality dawns: These athletes now begin to compete. Not one of them lacks for effort, of that there isn’t a doubt. The millions of those watching back home and some of the ruder ones watching in person will never see every single strained muscle or each heightening pulse that needs to be controlled. Who can blame the viewers. The majority has no comparable basis given their personal experience of sport is the casual game of cricket or picnic badminton. Yet, at this point, the optimism wanes and the reality seems far bleaker than predicted.
The critic emerges: At this stage, while the likes of Michael Phelps, Alexei Nemov, and Allyson Felix step in to the spotlight, the previously mentioned, sports experts begin to question the Indian athletes: If the other nationalities can do it, why can’t ours? Look how weak and underfed our athletes look. Our system is so poor that it doesn’t encourage sports in India. Surprisingly, most of these people will react the same way when faced with traffic jams, financial crisis due to low compliance of taxes and so on.
The post mortem: There will usually be a silver lining in every Summer games courtesy an overachieving athlete. This poster girl/boy will allow us to gloat in their success for a while, before they fade in to the background of loud laudatory messages of the Indian spirit and the hardworking ethos of this great nation. While the flashbulbs are still in use and the reels of film still rolling (anachronism alert!), the less fortunate athletes will quietly return to their dreary rooms in the sports institutes or their hometowns. They’ll wait for their turn in the next term. Until then, it’s time to survive — funds, food and fitness being their primary needs. Meanwhile, the media has done a rehashing of the post mortem from four years ago — the system is stacked against the athlete, see how much China allocates to its athletes and why can’t our sports bodies be more professionally run.
The great forgetting: Then, almost at once, we go back to normal life. The Games are done and dusted and we’re now moving along to sports that everyone understands, including the non-Olympic one that India actually does consistently well in. Apart from the odd controversy about doping, embezzlement, gun-pointing during a sports body election, Olympic sport doesn’t really get a mention. There are a few honourable journalistic exceptions in this barren country, but majority of news outlets would rather talk about Kohli’s latest tattoo (with no disrespect to a super athlete in his own right) than about Yogeshwar Dutt’s most recent turn on an opponent. Meanwhile, the expert is busy shaping their skills for the upcoming US Open where they can point out how Novak Djokovic isn’t quite hitting his backhand right on the ad-court.
We’re all equally guilty. Those of us with the ability to read this post (whether you are reading or not is not the point), can and should be able to change the way sport is played and perceived in the country. We all want an Indian Ian Thorpe and we want to see a Gail Devers like woman wearing the Indian tricolour. Yet, we refuse to let our sons stay in the pool all day when the exams are coming close. We won’t let our daughters run on the track because they might have a better shot at becoming part of an international airline cabin crew.
We refuse to give ourselves the chance to even improve the infrastructure that we crib about. If we all begin to ask for an improvement in sports infrastructure in this country, together, by actually putting our money where our mouth is, things might actually change. The more of us actually prioritise sports alongside academics should compel any business minded individual to consider the inconceivable fact that sporting facilities can even be profitable. As they become more profitable, sports becomes a more integral part of our society. That percolates down to the tier II and tier III towns and villages. Starting with the more affluent residents, sports becomes a way of life, it becomes an alternative to waiting for government jobs and private sector takeovers of land. Investment begins to trickle in, slowly but surely setting in motion a virtuous cycle.
If not us, our grandkids and their kids after them, will thank us that we could help them actually come back with a double digit medal tally three Olympics in a row.
Of course, the solution isn’t so simple. It all begins with having the right attitude to sport. It doesn’t just mean waking up at 3.30am to watch an Indian athlete in Rio. It also means waking up with your daughter at the same time for boxing practice or taking your son for gymnastics tryouts. If you’re already been shaking your head in cynical unison while reading this with the rest of this country, it’s probably fair to say, that the medals India hopefully wins in Rio will be despite you and not because of you.
